False or misleading information in some of YouTube’s most popular COVID-19 videos has had more than 62 million views.
There is some mysterious magic behind what makes information take root on the internet, and it apparently has nothing to do with accuracy.
A study that BMJ Global Health recently published has found that 1 in 4 of the most viewed YouTube videos discussing SARS-CoV-2 contain misleading or inaccurate information.
The dissemination of inaccurate or deliberately misleading information continues to hamper the containment of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
While plenty of good information about the novel coronavirus is available on YouTube, nonfactual or misleading videos seem to be just as appealing to online audiences.
Earlier research found social media platforms to be of mixed value during the swine flu (HIN1), Zika, and Ebola pandemics, offering both helpful and unhelpful information. In undertaking the new study, researchers were interested to return to this topic following the “rapid evolution and increasing usage of social media.”
YouTube is the second most popular site on the internet, after Google, and many people habitually consult this informational resource.
The researchers focused on a specific day — March 21, 2020 — identifying the most viewed relevant videos on the platform through keyword searches for the terms “coronavirus” and “COVID-19.”
After removing duplicate content, a list of 150 videos remained. Of these, the researchers deemed 69 (46%) eligible for analysis. This final set of videos had received a total of 257, 804,146 views.
The researchers used two validated scoring systems in their analysis: modified DISCERN and modified JAMA. They also added a third of their own: a COVID-19 specific score, or CSS, based on scoring systems that scientists had developed for previous outbreaks.
For each video, the team awarded a CSS point for the presence of exclusively factual information regarding how the virus spreads, how to prevent it from spreading, typical symptoms, poss